He also disputed testimony of key prosecution witness who claimed Baroni told the governor the lanes were closed as a political retribution plot.
NEWARK -Former Port Authority executive Bill Baroni, charged with using the world's busiest bridge as a tool of political retribution, took the stand in his own defense Monday, maintaining he knew nothing about a plot to punish the mayor of Fort Lee and saying he believed the closure of local access lanes was part of a legitimate traffic study.
Testifying at the start of the trial's fifth week, Baroni also disputed the claim by former Port Authority official David Wildstein that the two told Gov. Chris Christie the lane closures were designed to punish the mayor of Fort Lee, Mark Sokolich, for withholding his endorsement of Christie.
Baroni told jurors the three men, while attending Sept. 11 memorial events in 2013, did have a conversation that day about the lane closures as they were happening. But Baroni rejected Wildstein's claim that the three laughed about the closures and insisted it was a professional conversation about a traffic study aimed at easing congestion on the bridge's chronically congested upper level.
He said Wildstein, the Port Authority's former director of interstate capital projects, told the governor the study would allow him to claim credit for reducing traffic on the upper level.
"Was there any mention of political retribution?" he was asked.
"No," he said.
A photo introduced by the prosecution of Baroni, the governor and Wildstein laughing after the ceremony at one point when they were alone was a snapshot in time, and had nothing to do with the lane closures, Baroni testified. They had been chatting about a number of things, he added, including the arrival of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on a motorcycle. The photo has been cited by federal prosecutors as the point when the governor was informed about what was happening.
"Are you laughing about the Fort lee delay?" he was asked.
"Absolutely not," he said.
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The former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, Baroni, 44, is accused of using his position to shut down several local access toll lanes at the bridge to cause massive traffic jams in Fort Lee in a scheme to punish Sokolich over his refusal to endorse Gov. Chris Christie for re-election.
Baroni testified that he had believed the lane closures were part of a legitimate traffic study, put into play by Wildstein.
"This was his project," he said. "He was going to be responsible for it."
At the same time, he pointed to an email he was copied on the night before the lane closure, with recipients that included bridge operations personnel and police. It suggested to him that it was an authorized operation.
"It told me that this was a project that had professionals in the agency involved," he said under questioning by defense attorney Jennifer Mara.
He also addressed the most damning evidence against him -- his decision not to return a series of increasingly frantic calls from Sokolich, as congestion in Fort Lee grew. Baroni told the jury that Wildstein convinced him that any communication with the mayor would negatively impact the study.
"I've asked myself that question a thousand times," Baroni said. "It's the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night."
In the end, he said, he acquiesced to Wildstein's instruction that they maintain "radio silence" after Sokolich reached out to Baroni.
"I listened to David Wildstein," he told the jury.
He claimed Wildstein repeatedly told him that given his cordial relationship with Sokolich, he would "wimp out" and stop the lane closures, which would ruin the study.
"He said to me 'let me handle it.' I listened to him," Baroni said, jutting his jaw forward as he spoke to the jury.
"I have regretted it ever since."
Baroni said while Wildstein was under him in the Port Authority's table of organization, it was Wildstein who was calling the shots from Trenton.
"Gov. Christie told me to hire him," he said. "David was responsible for issues that Trenton was interested in. That the governor was interested in."
"Did he report to you?" asked Mara.
"He did not," Baroni replied. "He reported to Trenton."
Baroni also said he had little contact with the governor after David Samson, a confidante of Christie, was named to become chairman of the Port Authority. Samson, he said "made it very, very clear" that he was to be the one who communicated with the governor.
Baroni is charged along with Bridget Anne Kelly, a former deputy chief of staff to Christie, with nine counts of conspiracy and fraud in connection with the unauthorized toll lane closures that led to nearly total gridlock on Fort Lee streets over a four-day period in September 2013.
Mark Mueller may be reached at mmueller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkJMueller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.